Chapter 25 The 25th of March

On the day of March 25th, various battle reports regarding the matches in the wee hours came out one after another.

The three hottest topics among them were—

First, [Shanhe] won against their old rival [Tiandi] in their match.

The competing sides were both studios ranked among the top ten in the industry. Naturally, both the winning and losing sides exposed a lot of news and related interviews after the match.

Second, [Hongying] was miserably swept by a dark horse.

The spokesperson for [Hongying] Studio also admitted after the match that, after losing Xu Huaishang, they were experiencing a bit of a lull in the hot main event, *Thriller Paradise*. The road to cultivating new aces was still long and would take time.

Third, who exactly is [Paradise's Gate]?

This question is currently the most concerning for the vast majority of players. However, this mysterious team does not accept any form of interviews or communication, nor has it made any sound through any channel, causing the media to rely on nonsense and sensational headlines to report on them. This has made the situation of this team even more confusing.

…

On the 26th, at midnight, the matching list for the fourth round of the competition was released on time.

In this round, a total of 3,339 teams participated. The number of teams was still an odd number, so one team would still have a bye, leaving the remaining 3,338 teams to fight in pairs.

By this round, in addition to those seeded teams, many teams that performed brilliantly in the first three rounds... such as teams like [Paradise's Gate]... their matching situations have also become the focus of attention.

And this... is exactly what Dream Corporation's operations department is looking forward to seeing.

The "completely random" matching mechanism is to allow casual players to have more opportunities to advance and show themselves. At this stage, this project has already been successful.

Compared with the previous two competitions, in S3, the sense of participation and degree of participation of ordinary players have been significantly improved... It is conceivable that when people see teams like [Zhushen], [Hongying], and [Tiandi] being eliminated one after another, while many grassroots teams with similar levels to themselves (at least some viewers think so when watching) are still advancing, that kind of "I can do it too" sentiment will inevitably rise. This emotion is the catalyst that inspires people to invest more in something.

…

March 26th, late, 11:55 PM.

In five more minutes, the fourth round of the Pinnacle Melee S3 competition will begin.

In this round, there is only one focus match, but there are two things about "matching" that need to be mentioned.

Let's talk about the second thing first—[Hell Frontline] has a bye in this round.

This is indeed a noteworthy thing, because there has never been a case of a seeded team having a bye in the first three rounds.

Of course, no one thinks this is a scam or anything... Since it's "completely random," it's only a matter of time before a seeded team gets a bye. Furthermore, from the perspective of the vast majority of ordinary players, it's a good thing for a strong team to have a bye, after all... whoever meets them is unlucky.

Then, let's go back and talk about the first thing, that is, the two sides of the "focus match"—[Sengoku] and [Loser Alliance].

These are both teams that made it to the S2 finals, and are listed alongside [Hell Frontline] and [Order] as the final four in the S2 era... So the attention to this match is no less than that of [Order] vs [Zhushen] in the first round.

Due to the S3 tournament system requiring the number of team members to be expanded to seven, the lineups of both sides have also changed in this competition.

Let's talk about [Sengoku] first. Although it is a foreign studio, it has naturally gained many local fans after being stationed in *Thriller Paradise* for so long... Considering that most of the male fans are running towards the four girls who are shouldering the main responsibility, Oda Ai, Akechi Shin, Takeda Chi, and Uesugi Jin must be on the team.

In addition to them, Sasaki Mei naturally has to take a position. He is not only the team's brain trust, but also one of the top three in the team in terms of strength. There is no reason to sit on the bench.

As for the remaining two spots... Toyotomi Hei, Imagawa Gi, Tokugawa Chu, and Hojo Wa of the original "Sengoku Second Team" all intend to compete for them. This is understandable, because the four of them were indeed miserably beaten by the [Loser Alliance] in S2, so they all have the desire to personally go into battle and avenge their humiliation.

However, in the end, only Imagawa Gi was selected; the reason for his selection was not that he was stronger than the other second team members, but because he majored in reconnaissance specialization, which would make the team's structure more reasonable after joining.

And the player who became the seventh member of the [Sengoku] team in this competition has the ID of Date Makoto... a newbie that the studio has been cultivating since the S2 era. His positioning is somewhat similar to that of Gui Xiao, both being seventeen-year-old genius-type players, and is also the key object that [Sengoku] prepares to focus on cultivating in the future.

The above is the personnel configuration of the [Sengoku] team.

Next, let's talk about the [Loser Alliance]...

The "Loser Five Tigers" of the S2 era are all here this time, Honghu, Zhaoying Wang, Loser Uncle, Juanmenghuan, and Bi Laoshi... not one of them is missing.

Some people may be wondering, why is Old Bi, who was originally used to "make up the numbers", here again this time?

Let me put it this way... two reasons: First, because Old Bi has good interpersonal relationships (this reason is unsolvable). Second, because the current Bi Laoshi... can indeed be used as a kind of "strategic weapon".

As mentioned earlier, after S2, Old Bi has already become a god-level figure in the world of jokes (the same god-level figures include Chun Ge, King, Satan, Clown Buggy, Chuck Norris, etc.)... I don't know why, but 99% of the players are willing to believe that—he is strong, so strong that he is unfathomable.

And the analysis teams of major studios also know very little about Bi Laoshi's upper limit of strength, ability characteristics, and other information—reasonable guesses and a massive amount of jokes make it difficult for them to make accurate judgments.

Of course, there are also enlightened people, such as Feng Bujue and Gui Xiao... However, they all chose to remain silent about Bi Laoshi's strength; Forget about Jue-Ge, this professional player Gui Xiao actually talked nonsense to the company, saying something like "Even I can't see through Bi Laoshi's strength," which made the behind-the-scenes staff of [Order] panic.

In short, being able to slack off in a mixed team to the level of Old Bi is already impeccable...

In addition, besides the "Loser Five Tigers", the two new members of the [Loser Alliance] team are also familiar faces.

The first one is Tianma Xingkong... That's right, it's Little Ma, who won the S1 championship.

As we all know, Little Ma was originally a player from the [Xingchen] Studio, and everyone knows the name of [Xingchen] as an "arsenal" in the e-sports circle. Logically speaking... after winning the S1 championship, Little Ma should have been sold by them at a high price.

However... the embarrassing thing is, no one bought him.

The reason is very simple. There is a big disagreement between the buyer and seller on the price. Although Little Ma has a championship title, most of the studio's analysis teams believe that, based on actual performance, this straight-laced guy is not worth the price offered by [Xingchen].

And [Xingchen] is not in a hurry either. Anyway, the players they sign are all young, unknown, and have potential. The contracts they use are all short-term and low-paid. Since no one buys him, they will keep him for use.

So, Little Ma stayed in [Xingchen] through S2. It wasn't until his contract was about to expire that the studio realized... This situation is not right? If they don't sell him, he will become a free agent.

But at this time, it is difficult to sell him again... Everyone knows that [Xingchen]'s contract is extremely low in terms of basic security. The only attractive thing about it is the "transfer split" clause—a regulation that benefits both the studio and the players, but the buyer has to pay the bill.

In simple terms, [Xingchen]'s players have a future but no "financial future" in the studio. Their goal is to "be sold"... Once they are transferred, they can not only go to the studio that bought them to get high salaries, but also receive a considerable transfer fee bonus at one time.

However, Tianma Xingkong is a special case... When his value was at its highest, the buyer and seller could not reach a consensus on his value positioning, so he was delayed... By the time his contract was about to expire, no one would be foolish enough to spend a transfer fee to buy him? If you really want to sign him, just wait for him to terminate his contract and sign him as a free agent? Anyway, [Xingchen]'s low-salary short-term contract does not come with a non-compete agreement.

In summary, Tianma Xingkong has become one of the very rare players in [Xingchen] over the years who waited until the expiration of their contract and automatically terminated it.

On the day his contract expired, the date of the S3 competition was already very close... The lineups of most studios' teams had already been polished and registration had been completed. Even though many studios expressed their desire to sign him, none of them could provide him with a spot in the competition.

At this time, the cunning Honghu (who had already inquired about the date of Little Ma's contract expiration through relationships in the circle) extended an olive branch to Little Ma as a friend, successfully winning a Saint Se... Oh no... A fierce general for the [Loser Alliance].

Finally, there is another new member of the [Loser Alliance] team to introduce—Qi Sha.

Yes, it's Qi Sha from [Blade].

This one came to the door himself. His reason was also very sufficient... Because the studio did not plan to participate in the competition this time, and he personally hoped to compete with masters in the competition, so, after obtaining the approval of his leaders, he came out alone to find a team.

[Loser Alliance] was the first team that Qi Sha approached... As a team with a sense of humanity far greater than utilitarianism, a team that seemed to be a shelter for the homeless, they discussed it casually and let Qi Sha join the team.

So far, all seven members of the [Loser Alliance] have been determined.

…

As the clock struck midnight, the fourth round of the competition also kicked off.

Today, the [Hell Frontline] team members, who had a bye, were waiting in the conference room at the first second of the start of the competition, having locked in the live broadcast channel of the [Sengoku] and [Loser Alliance] match early on.

Not only them, the big screen in the game mall was also broadcasting this match at this moment, with two commentators.

This battle between two strong teams is already on the verge of breaking out.